MISSISSIPPI RIVER - pilot onboard - helmsman on action -

Connaissez vous le métier de pilote maritime ? Rencontre avec Gabriel Charpentier à Sète dans l'Hérault. Lorsque les navires de plus de 55 mètres arrivent dans un port, les pilotes maritimes prennent le relais du commandant. Ils ont la responsabilité de faire entrer ces gros bateaux par tous les temps. Lors d'une escale, ils sont les premiers à monter à bord en pleine mer sur une échelle de corde de neuf mètres.
Reportage de Cybèle Plichart

In this article Marine Pilot André Gaillard gives us his vision of the maritime pilotage profession of yesterday, today and tomorrow.

This study presents a novel decision support process for a pilot dispatching problem in the St. Lawrence River. It integrates a comprehensive set of time-based performance measures, including working time, waiting time, and skill level differences, to optimize fairness and operational efficiency in pilot dispatching.

Article by Seyed Behbood Issa-Zadeh & Claudia Lizette Garay-Rondero

A ship may berth port or starboard side on or bow or stem on. The term “berth” refers to the quay, or wharf, or, pier or jetty where the ship comes alongside, but it may also mean a place in which a vessel is moored or anchored.

Comment and photos by Reshma Nilofer Naha
India's first female Marine Pilot (Kalkata Port Trust)

This video complements the earlier demonstration of wind effect on straight track and shows now wind effect on turning circles. It can be seen that during a turn under strong wind the ship reduces turning when it comes close to equilibrium on straight track - if the Wind-to-ship speed ratio is big enough then the ship even goes straight instead of turning. This is shown for three samples for Head, Stern wind and Beam wind. The turning can be increased if the ratio of Wind speed-to-ship...

From "Casual Navigation": In this video, we investigate the Pilot Ladder. It is a crucial piece of equipment, used for embarking and disembarking a harbor pilot at sea.(contains advertising)

pilot boat

A handy and simple tool to determine in a minimum time what is really needed as tug assistance, is the Bollard Pull Calculator which calculates in an approximate way the total required tug power for ships in various conditions of wind and current. This tool can be loaded as an app on the smart phone.